The Effect of Formal and Informal Contracting Mechanisms on Implementation Performance in the U.S. Federalist System

The relationship between contract management capacity and implementation success in local government contracting is well established. However, less is known about how specific contract mechanisms are linked to this success. This study uses implementation of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program to examine the use of formal and informal contract management techniques in the implementation of energy projects. The use of formal contract mechanisms, such as full and open competitive bidding, contact rescission and outcome-based performance measures, exhibits a statistically significant effect on implementation performance. The findings advance contracting theory and have practical implications for local government contracting and implementation success in fiscal federalism.     

检察权的外部监督制约机制研究

检察权的外部监督制约机制主要包括外部权力监督和权利监督两个方面.检察权的外部权力监督在法律层面上完善国家权力机关(人大)对检察权的监督以及公安机关和人民法院对检察权的制约.在权利监督制约层面,则要增强犯罪嫌疑人、被告人、被害人、辩护人的防御性权利和完善救济性权利,建立和完善人民监督员的社会权利监督制度,形成对检察权有效监督制约.     

行政强制证据制度初探

行政强制证明对象包括实体性事实和程序性事实。行政强制程序中,行政机关依职权调查案件事实,承担案件事实的证明责任,但并不排除社会公众、当事人提供证据的权利和责任,也不排除社会公众协助的义务。行政强制措施不能确定过高证明标准,强制性行政检查措施应当采用“有理由的相信”证明标准,应急性行政强制措施应当确定“合理根据”证明标准。行政强制执行应当采用排除合理怀疑证明标准。     

Building capacity in indigenous governance: Comparing the Australian and American experiences

This paper compares key aspects of governance structures for Indigenous populations in the United States and Australia. The paper focuses on policy coordination and administration, in particular the nodes of decision-making in the two countries in relation to government contracting and accountability. The U.S. approach to funding Indigenous organizations stems from the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Act and its subsequent expansions. Through the development of contracting into permanent compacting via block grants, this approach builds established nodes of Indigenous government and facilitates whole-of-government coherence at the level of the American Indian tribe. The U.S. approach seems correlated with better performance and may lighten bureaucratic loads over the long term. The Australian model, on the other hand, seeks to create whole-of-government coherence through top-down financial accountability in a way that hampers the development of Indigenous political capacity. The paper traces the development of these practices through time and illustrates how they contribute to the fragmentation rather than growth of Indigenous political capacities. It suggests ways the Australian model could be improved even in the absence of fundamental reform by drawing on the contracting-to-compacting framework of longstanding U.S. practices.     

Leveraging liminality: how San Diego taxi drivers used their precarious status to win reform

ABSTRACT

Using a case study in San Diego, California, we explore the complexities of precarious employment for taxi drivers. We seek to answer the following question: how do the ambiguities of taxi drivers’ status as independent contractors shape drivers’ work conditions and opportunities for resistance? Our study is based on 331 surveys, 20 in-depth interviews, participant observation, and policy analysis over two years. While drivers were objectively disempowered by the independent contracting designation, lacking both the protections granted employees and the prerogatives of ownership, they were empowered by the alliances this duality facilitated. Drivers used their marginal identities as workers and as entrepreneurs to their advantage in their campaign for reform. This case presents an alternative narrative to previous research, which generally highlights how independent contractors either accept their status in exchange for flexibility or resist by claiming misclassification. The immigrant taxi drivers in our case study actively resisted, not by pursuing recognition as employees, but rather by successfully seeking the full rights of business owners.     

《环境污染强制责任保险管理办法(草案)》除外责任之探讨

除外责任具体内容的设计应考虑公益和私益的平衡,确保其在及时、有效分散与移转风险,削减社会管理成本的同时兼顾承保人、投保人、受害人三方的私益.《环境污染强制责任保险管理办法(草案)》中将"不可抗拒的自然灾害""环境污染犯罪"的除外责任限定于"致使第三者遭受的损害"不妥,保险公司不应为生态环境损害承担保险责任;将"环境污染...     

非羁押性刑事强制措施探析

刑事强制措施的改革是刑事审前程序改革的要害所在,而非羁押性刑事强制措施的设计是否科学、适用是否公正,不仅对整个刑事强制措施体系有着直接影响,而且也关系到每个被追诉者,甚至每个公民人身自由权的保障。应当正确认识非羁押性刑事强制措施,重构刑事强制措施体系。     

意大利强制性侦查监控制度之特色

1988年意大利对刑事诉讼法进行了重大修改,修改之后的刑事侦查制度确立了侦查机关采用强制性侦查措施必须遵循适合性、必要性、相称性三个基本原则,建立了严格的司法授权和审查机制以及完善的司法救济程序。意大利这一改革动向对优化我国的强制性侦查监控制度具有重大的借鉴意义。     

Dynamic-opportunistic behaviour in local government contracting-out decisions during the electoral cycle

A major question for public managers is whether municipal services should be rendered in-house or contracted out. In view of the negative perceptions often aroused by contracting out, this political decision might be framed within a theoretical model that we term ‘dynamic-opportunistic behaviour’. According to this model, the probability of municipal services being contracted out is greater in the years immediately following elections; moreover, during this period the decision is taken more quickly. In this theoretical model, not all factors (budgetary, economic, political, service characteristics and socio-economic) have an equal impact on the contracting-out decision during each year of the electoral cycle. The model was applied to a sample of 2,274 Spanish municipalities, with respect to a broad time horizon (2002–2014), and the results obtained confirm our hypotheses regarding dynamic-opportunistic behaviour in the contracting out of local public services.     

论合同自由与合同正义

合同自由与合同正义同为合同法的基本原则,统率合同法的各个领域。二者既有统一协调的一面,又存在对立抵触,只有协调好这两个原则．才有可能实现合同法的价值追求。